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The goldfish's uncles daughters ferret has managed to melt three FP spawn bags in a 6qt PC. Found out ductape is no good to seal before PCing. Put it in, in a cloth, sides still melted. What's the trick? Tried ryegrain and 50/50 compost/verm.

Gonna try putting the bag in a pillcase this time. And use a little more water, so its not dry after 1h20m. Does anyone use the Presto 22 qt PC? I'm not sure if I should have posted this msg in AdvCultivation.

Best not to allow autclave bags to touch the sides or botton of a PC. As the sides & bottom can be a higher temp, than is maintained inside the PC, via steam pressure release. You might try wrapping your bags in a wet towel.

Duct tape ? To properly seal an autoclave bag, use an impulse sealer designed for the task.

You can also cobble togather a system that serves the same purpose as a filter patch & seals the bag. Here is how.

Pre/PC.....pull the neck of a bag through a short piece of small bore radiator hose (automotive store).

Invert the outside of the bag, down the outside of the hose. Apply a filter disk (or filter material) over the opening & clamp it all down tight to the hose with a radiator hose clamp (automotive store).

This serves to seal the bag, in the same manner as a filter patch does. It allows steam to escape while being PC'ed. So the bag does not explode under pressure.

This method works . The raccoon knows, as it is what he did, before he acquired filter patch bags & an impulse sealer.

Still many people think that it's impossible to sterilise sealed filter patch bags. They sterilise the substrate in an open bag and seal after spawning. This of course brings with it a great risk for introducing contaminants into the substrate.

We have had great succes with autoclaving sealed filter patch bags, however there are a few things you should know:

The bags expand during cooking which means that if the bottoms of the bags stand in water, they will push the water out of the cooker through the vent pipe. This can be prevented by placing the bags on top of a sturdy rack. The water level should be below the rack. This will mean that there is not much water in the cooker. Pressure has to be regulated precise so no excessive steam escape takes place.

Since the expanding bags may also block the vent pipe a rack of some sort should also be put on top of the bags to prevent this. If water comes out of the vent pipe this means that somehow there's too much water in the cooker and that the expanding bags can push the water out.

There should be enough bags in the autoclave. If the expanded volume of the bags is smaller than the volume of the cooker they will burst. Because they all expand during cooking they prevent each other from bursting.

As much air as possible is pushed out during sealing of the bags. This makes it easier to put them in the cooker and allows for better steam buildup.

Water and dry ingredients can be conveniently combined and sterilised for an appropiate time.

A good sealer must be used, poor seals burst during autoclaving.

Sterilsation time for bags is 1.5 - 2.5 hours depending on the single volume/weight of the bags.

After sterilisation the bags are removed and shaken. Shaking is not always possible because many bags will come out with little air in the bag. This doesn't matter since the bags will inflate during incubation and can then be easily shaken.

Since the bag is closed now, inoculation can only take place by liquid injection. For spawning purposes small amounts of substrate are sterilised in bottles and inoculated with the desired strain. Extra care is taken to ensure the purity of these master cultures.

When these master are completely colonised they can be used for inoculations. Sterile water is added to the master bottle and this is shaken by hand for 10 minutes. This broth is left to stand for 5 minutes after which the liquid can be poured back into the bottle that contained the water. This liquid is poured into a sterile container from which a 50 ml syringe can be filled.

This syringe is used to inoculate the bags. The injection site is cleaned with an alcohol soaked towel and then pierced with the needle. Liquid inoculant is injected into the substrate. The hole is shut with a drop of hot glue from a glue gun.

After the glue has hardened the bags should be shaken (again, if possible) and can then be incubated. Shaken can take place as soon as the bags have inflated (after some mycelial growth, often after a few days.)